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UE Arts
Thaumaturgic Basics Thaumaturgy is the art of ritual essence manipulation using the magical laws of Creation and essence active objects (collectively referred to as Reagents.) Thaumaturgy is a lesser class of essence manipulation that the more advanced arts of sorcery (Spell Casting), Psycher Manipulation (Psychic Powers) and Charm based manipulation (general catch all for everything else.) The single most important aspect of Thaumaturgy is that it does not require an Awakened Essence to use and maybe learned by normal mortals. This is translated into the game system as characters not needing to have the Gift advantage to create or use thaumaturgic procedures. The negative part is that if you do not possess "The Gift" you have limited access to your Zeon pool and do not possess magical accumulation to allow you to charge Talisman on the fly and lack the ability to create Talismans at anything other than base potency. Unenlightened Mortals (no Gift) may only use thaumaturgic procedures as rituals and require reagents that are consumed to provide the needed essence. Enlightened beings (exalted, enlightened mortals, gods, elementals, etc) are able to correctly channel essence into the ritual and do not require as many reagents. All thaumaturgic procedures are minor magic and replicate or supplement spells of level 20 or lower. Thaumaturgy gives access to a wide range of effects but all are fairly minor in power compared to the higher level spells, higher activation psychic abilities and more powerful Ki abilities. Access to direct damage, state changes and AOE versions of both are severely limited in scope and power. Ripped from Exalted source material for illustration purposes. "Thaumaturgy is designed to be as multipurpose as possible but weaker than Charms, Sorcery or Necromancy. An experienced magician might know scores of rituals, each designed fro a specific limited purpose." "Such minor magic is called thaumaturgy in the texts of the First Age, and it is unique among magical disciplines in that its rituals draw upon arcane truths embedded in the natural laws and principles of Creation. Where Charms impose new states and events through Essence, thaumaturgic rituals coax the existing Essence patterns of the world to do something they are naturally prone to do, obviating the need for personal Essence expenditure. Thaumaturgy fails utterly before the spells of the Exalted, though, so any form of sorceress or necromantic counter magic completely destroys any form of lingering thaumaturgic effect or enchantment without any backlash of scattered Essence." Thaumaturgy is a special skill based on the Occult secondary ability and has a number of separate sub-schools called Arts. The Arts are Alchemy, Astrology, The Dead, Demon Summoning, Elemental Summoning, Enchantment, Geomancy, Husbandry, Spirit Beckoning, Warding and Exorcism and Weather Working. Each of the Arts requires the character to possess one or more secondary or primary abilities other than Occult to make full usage of it and have special rules related to it. A character's ability to utilize each Art is determined by the degree to which they have mastered that particular Art. Characters have one of four ratings in each art basic, initiate, adept, or master. (Levels 0, 1, 2, 3), which determines the maximum difficulty level of thaumaturgy procedures they made attempt. You may attempt any ritual with a rating equal to or less than your degree of mastery. Level 0 rituals can be performed by anyone who knows them and do not require any specific abilities beyond basic occult. There is no hard limit to the number of rituals which a character may possess. The vast majority of rituals known are minor effects for mundane usage and are not detailed but maybe accessed for stunting or story purposes. The number of starting rituals known is determined by the GM based on the background of the character and how much of a role he wishes to have thaumaturgy playing his game. (Yes, that's sexist, but it's written about me so bugger off.) Characters may know a number of degrees equal to their occult secondary ability and essence appraisal secondary ability added together and divided by 40. In order to take a degree, you must meet all of the minimums skill levels required for that ability. The primary prerequisite of all thaumaturgic Arts is a final occult secondary ability score of degree level times 30, some Arts have additional requirements. Each degree also has a cost in DP that must be paid to acquire it. Cost per Degree Lv #Basic: None and None #Initiate: 10 DP Occult 30 #Adept: 20 DP Occult 60 #Master: 30 DP Occult 90 Performing a thaumaturgic ritual requires an occult check at the difficulty dependent on the level of the power and its complexity. Baseline difficulty for occult check Lv 0: Moderate, Lv 1: Difficult, Lv 2: Very Difficult, Lv 3: Absurd Category:UE Rules Category:UE Charms Category:UE Thamaturgy